in my line of work, you don't hear it run until after I get my hands on it. LOL

I have bought many engines and transmissions from jy's over the years, it's a gamble, have not lost the bet on any of them as yet. Yards in my area don't let you mess with the engines, which are test run, checked for obvious issues then pulled and mounted on pallets...nuff said.

 

Over here we can buy off the shelf, or yank our own at the pick-and-pull for a lot less. The latter it's pretty easy to peek under the VC and oil pan. The engines don't get pulled and warehoused until the body goes off to the crusher.

 

Ive been looking for a motor for my '92 for 2 years now. Local junkyards HAD low milage (90K) verified motors with 90 day warranty for $500. I got into the habit of asking for a 4.0 for a "1998 cherokee". I want the NVH improvements on the later years. Once I tell them it's a '92 then I get 91-93 only. Have had many heated debates with the parts jockeys on the phone.

In the past year or so, they have all dried up. I even drove 400 miles with my trailer to look at a 4.0 under a tarp at a farm. I passed. He wanted $400 and wouldn't budge. Craigslist has been a joke. I posted a roughly 500 mile radius of ads for a running 97-99 4.0. Mostly got crackheads selling trashed RENIXes or yokels selling me Chebby 4.3s.

My local yards are pretty efficient. They have computer tags on everything with the VIN/Milage/Year and damage if any to the vehicle on the major parts.

If your local scrappers can verify the engine mileage and runability, then I would go for it.